A parliamentary committee will undertake an inquiry into an independent MP’s plan to support community-owned clean energy projects in regional Australia, and it could be a plan that even Barnaby Joyce can back.
New legislation is being proposed by independent MP for Indi, Helen Haines, and has been referred to the House Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy for consideration.
The legislation would establish a new federal government entity, the Australian Local Power Agency, modelled off the existing Australian Renewable Energy Agency, that would be tasked with providing financial support and guidance to community-led energy projects.
The agency is part of a larger plan to increase community ownership in new clean energy projects and would be paired with a mandate for all new large-scale clean energy developments to offer an ownership stake in the project to members of the local community.
Through the proposed legislation, community ownership would become a feature of every new wind and solar project built in Australia and would require project developers to offer local residents the opportunity to take up to a 20 per cent ownership stake in the project.
With an additional $467 million support package, the proposed Australian Local Power Agency (ALPA) would offer underwriting support for new community owned renewable energy projects, with an estimated budget of around $50 million per year for ten years.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/local-power-mp-wants-community-ownership-in-every-new-wind-and-solar-project/
